Pint sized or not, it has spirit, and at £7000 it wins the 'look at me prize'. Roberto Giordanelli takes to the streets in the Abarth Yellow Peril.

The cheeky Cinquecento Sporting is now available in Abarth form. In the devil-may-care sixties that meant horsepower but now it means a body kit.
Launched in June '93, the Cinquecento's looks lend themselves to the modifications found in the Sporting and Sporting Abarth. The front end tretment loks good although the left-hand end of the bumper looks as if it has something missing. The door mirrors, Abarth logoed side skirts, alloy wheels and rear screen spoiler integrate well. However, the big rear bumper suffers from ducks disease, its bottom being too close to the ground. Fiat offer a whole shopful of official Abarth merchandising from scorpione logoed shirts to shades. Our car had a smart leather steering wheel with a racy looking centre boss and regulation crab badge.
Its eyecatching feature continue through the interior with attractivetrim, multi-coloured stripy seats, lots of yellow paint and bright red seat belts; these colours neatly matching the Abarth badge on the steering wheel. Reminiscent of early Mini's the door pockets offer useful storage space. Styling details in things like the racy door mirrors can be found in much of the car. Most of the controls are easy to operate. Stereo, immobiliser, central locking, electric windows, alloy wheels and sports interior are all standard. Maybe something was lost in the right hand drive transition , but the big, drilled pedals felt a little awkward. The right foot has to be kept toes-up for long periods to operate the throttle. Toe-heeeling is just possible with the side of the foot. The electric window switches can be a little hard to find. Sitting position is high with the legs dropping down to the pedals; typical of short five seater cars. A glass sunroof is an optional extra as are a drivers air bag and seat belt pre-tensioners. No ABS is offered and no glove box is fitted, just an enormous shelf, and consequently nowhere to hide anything from society's ever expanding army of thieves. Whilst on negative subjects the heater offers no recirculatory facility for those times when traffic pollution is heavy. If burglar bill dosen't get you the PM 10 particulates will.
With 54bhp to propel this 735kg eyecatcher, 0-60 comes up in 13.8 seconds. Top speed is quoted at 93mph although I often had an indicated 105mph without much trouble (Private road of course!). Power delivery is very flexible for an 1,100cc car. It will quite happily pull fromas low as 1000rpm. The easy action gear lever is also good with over 20mph per 1000rpm in fifth gear.
It's funny how different cars bring out different driving styles. The yellow Scopione had me driving flat out quite often, which raises the question about its standard power, suggesting the need for more horses. I cannot help feeling that in this case, if you want to go faster you should buy a faster car. Fiat must have put a lot of thought into deciding how powerful to make the Cinquecento Sporting. I think they got it right. Apart from anything else, quick little 'uns confuse the traffic cut-n-thrust pecking order, which goes by weight rather than performance.
Independent tuners like Middle Barton Garage - spotting a hole in the market - are offering power upgrades for this impish machine. While there may be demands for this, I feel it may be limited. Turning the Cinquecento into a pocket rocket may be to miss the point. Despite having wheels at its extemities, its small overall wheelplan and highish centre of gravity are not really suited to high speeds. How fast can you propel a dinky toy along the ground before it goes out of control ?.
The Cinquecento's wheelplan to centre of gravity ratio makes its handling at 100+ mph quite nervous. As few drivers make the most of what they have got, it may be better to think about developing driving style rather than horsepower. If you must fiddle with it, I would suggest improving its handling. While there is little to be done about its pitching on bumps, an inevitable effect of short wheelbase lightweight cars, its cornering could do with some help. Set up as it is it is perfectly safe, has directional stability and is predictable, but for my liking understeers too much. I managed to lift and spin an inside front wheel in the dry on hard cornering. If it had less front roll stiffness and more rear roll stiffness it would understeer less and make the steering react quicker. As it is, when pushed to the limit the steering loads up, the front tyres scrub, the body leans and more lock has to be wound on to keep the same trajectory. Whether or not the Fiat Cinquecento will become one of the company's great minicars will have to be seen. Post-war small Fiats which stand out are the 600, the Panda and the Uno. The 500 was for masochists only. The 126 was for masochists with no style. The 127, although effective, was ugly, and the boxy 128 would fall into the next size car bracket.
Would Carlo Abarth turn in his grave at this car which bears his name ? Maybe. But in his day I suspect that only enthusiastic drivers (maniacs) drove his cars, which sometimes had twice thier original power. It would be expecting too much today to mass-market 120bhp Cinquecento's to the average driver. If Sig. Abarth were around today I think he would lower, stiffen and widen the Cinquecento before increasing the power. Overall the standard car is a good package. If it aint broke don't mend it.

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